Performance Issues

[Ryan Hoffman]

It looks like Autocrat is experiences some serivce issue.  Most of the time when I try to open a job it hangs out loading or ends in this error "Message details

Script AutoCrat3.onStart experienced an error."  I was able to open and execute one jut but it has been stuck on "Running job ..." for several minutes for an output of less than 100 records. The behavior has been consistent between different sheets and jobs.

Can anyone confirm there is some kind of service issue, temporary or otherwise?

Thanks.

[Melissa Fritz]

Hello,

I think my team may be in the same boat. We had some people unable to successfully run jobs throughout the day. Now, when trying to open Autocrat, we are getting stuck at the "Loading..." screen.  (Unsure if this is something with actual backend architecture across the internet. We also had some odd outages with other tech/SAAS yesterday.)

Thank you,

[Ryan Hoffman]

Well, I'm glad I'm not the only one.  It looks to be running better today.  But yesterday was frustrating.  Is there any way to contact the developers or be informed if there is some kind of outage?

[Melissa Fritz]

I did manage to get a job to run last night, so we are hopeful for today, too.

I'm not super sure, but I think that this forum/group is actually the direct way to contact the developers (and is the official support.) Autocrat is developed and maintained by a non-profit (NV is New Visions for Public Schools), and the Joseph Schmidt that you may see responding to other threads is part of that team. I think the team is small (and I'm guessing Autocrat is not their full-time focus), so I expect status updates to be more manual and only for very large/long outages.

Thankfully, this group is a good way to check in with other users, too, beyond just tech support.

[Ryan Hoffman]

Thanks for the info.

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[Melissa Fritz]

Small update: we are still seeing issues intermittently, but success rate is much higher. Lag will be either on loading or starting a job (no status updates are written into the usual fields), but closing and refreshing typically gets us success.

[Ryan Hoffman]

I concur.  We're experiencing similar behavior.  We will also ocassionally see the following error message.  Script AutoCrat3.onStart experienced an error

[Joseph Schmidt]

Most of what you said is true.  I'm a retired IT professional who enjoys helping folks. I don't get paid by anyone except a smile or two. If you are bored, you can read the blog entry that Newvisions helped me write a few years ago.

As to Autocrat running slow, the mise have a headache and took a couple of magic pills and should feel better in the morning.

Not many folks are reporting the issue so I guessing it is a temporary issue.

Doing a screen refresh is a good idea to see if the displayed version is out of sync with the copy in the cloud.

I have found that Autocrat works best with a simple sheet.  

You may want to clear the cache in the Chroome browser.  Chrome is the recommended browser but sometimes FireFox or EDGE works better.

I hope one of these works for you.

Joe Schmidt

https://www.youtube.com/c/JoeSchmidt

 GLUA...@gmail.com

New Visions Blog Entry - Joe Schmidt

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nv-autocrat-add-on/6c7d8932-4b6b-442e-bc56-788f3d68b159n%40googlegroups.com.

[Ryan Hoffman]

Well, I appreciate Autocrat more than I can probably express.  I've been using it for years now. 

To address your troubleshooting steps.

1. We've done a few cache clears.  It's pretty much the first thing I suggested to staff.  

2. The behavior was consistent between browsers yesterday.  Like I said, it's been much more functional today.  

3.  When you say to do a "screen refresh" are you referrring to reloading the browser window or is it a different procedure?  How can I tell if the displayed verison is in or out of sync with the cloud version?

Thanks.

[Joseph Schmidt]

You have the idea of a screen refresh.  Unfortunately, I don't know a way.  

One of the more interesting problems was when Autocrat wasn't filling the merge tags.

Eventually, we figured out that some formulas were slowing the process, and the data wasn't in the spreadsheet when Autocrat ran.  Maybe I've been at this too long, but I think like the mice that are working behind the scenes.  If a given process seems complicated, if I were doing it by hand, it might be causing a problem for Google.

Maybe autocrat is working better by now.

Joe Schmidt

https://www.youtube.com/c/JoeSchmidt

 GLUA...@gmail.com

New Visions Blog Entry - Joe Schmidt

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nv-autocrat-add-on/1190a8cd-5dba-474a-b2ed-7d170045959en%40googlegroups.com.

[ARCO Client Relations]

I am having the same issue. Just refuses to load. Have cleared the cache, have refreshed the screen. Have tried everything suggested. 

[Joseph Schmidt]

Did yuu read the entire thread?  This seems to be an intermittent issue.

Joe Schmidt

https://www.youtube.com/c/JoeSchmidt

 GLUA...@gmail.com

New Visions Blog Entry - Joe Schmidt

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nv-autocrat-add-on/3e689058-1fbf-48f7-b888-f9bb69fb0d6bn%40googlegroups.com.

[Scott Aten]

We are going on a week with this issue.  I reached out to several of the people who posted and all my replies have been that they did not have a resolution, so I think people are just not using it if they are a part of a school google domain.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nv-autocrat-add-on/CAPWPTOQKmhtNgwVCPKxY_uZVbjvr1K4ACsi4xsZQtivN1cyy%2BQ%40mail.gmail.com.

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[Joseph Schmidt]

I ran Autocrat with no issues.  Have you talked with the Workplace or IT folks?

Can you create a simple job that you can share that causes the error?

GLUA.joe @ Gmail.com.

Joe Schmidt

https://www.youtube.com/c/JoeSchmidt

 GLUA...@gmail.com

New Visions Blog Entry - Joe Schmidt

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nv-autocrat-add-on/CAJBtxnS2onMHUW1%3DrVVok347MbGy9AyHMxFTJioin3tPDoLEVQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Scott Aten]

My guess is you are using a personal account not an account that is a part of a Google school domain.  It works on my personal account too.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nv-autocrat-add-on/CAPWPTOSSKnZQRE%3D6D6n70dSJ3ZQvv4HYqrxED-f8fFwZF_qsaA%40mail.gmail.com.

[Joseph Schmidt]

I tried it on a simple workplace account.

I'm sure it doesn't contain all of the protections that might be on a school system.

Joe Schmidt

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nv-autocrat-add-on/CAJBtxnQR6%3DOT_MLzxdpK7ORogk%2BpDBceq38NGFRV3asVR%3DTpSg%40mail.gmail.com.